All right, we're here in 2 Samuel 11, and I want you to notice verse number 1.
Verse number 1.
And the two sermons today are kind of tying into our spring program of trying to bring
visitors to church.
And so the first sermon here today is about soul winning, and the second sermon is fulfilling
the Great Commission, which is not just soul winning, but it's also getting people baptized
and bringing them to church.
So we're going to look at the full picture here today.
And so this kind of ties into, I mentioned in a YouTube video that my favorite preacher
from the 20th century died 25 years ago this past week, and he was known, if you know who
Curtis Hudson is, as a very zealous soul winner.
That was kind of the big thing he was known for, was preaching hard on salvation and doing
lots of soul winning.
And so we're kind of going back to the basics here today of talking about soul winning and
bringing people to church.
So I want you to notice 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, and it came to pass after the year was
expired at the time when kings go forth to battle.
Now when you think about the life of David, David was a man who led the charge.
He fought the battles of the Lord.
He was not afraid to fight the battles, but this one specific instance, he does not fight
the battle.
This leads to him committing adultery with Bathsheba, and that's a whole other sermon.
But what I want you to notice is there is a time for kings to go forth to battle.
Now let me explain something.
When you get saved, you become kings and priests, the Bible says.
So symbolically, this applies to all of us because there is a time when soul winners
go forth to battle.
There's a time when we go out to try to get people saved, preach the gospel to the lost,
and bring them to church.
And let me tell you something, that time should be a weekly thing for us, okay, of going out
to battle, getting people saved, and bringing them to church.
You say, why?
There is a time when soul winners go forth to battle.
Now turn in your Bible to Jonah 3.
Jonah 3.
Jonah chapter 3.
And see the first point I want to explain here today is this.
You need to perceive that there is a battle.
You need to perceive or understand that there is a battle because, look, if you do not understand
there is a battle, you're not going to go and fight the battle.
See the majority of people in the Christian realm in today's world, which includes both
believers and unbelievers, the majority of people that go to a non-Catholic church, they
believe like everybody who's not Catholic is saved.
Everybody who's not in a cult is just saved.
Well, they've all heard the name of Jesus.
I mean, we all believe in Jesus, don't we?
We all worship the same God, don't we?
Look, I've believed in Jesus my whole life, but that doesn't mean I was putting my trust
in Him for salvation, okay?
And so the first thing you need to understand is perceive there is a battle.
And I hope that all of us in this room realize that the majority of people are unsaved, but
let me just show you that there is a battle.
Notice what it says in Jonah 3 verse 10.
And so perceiving there is a battle, the first thing about that is realizing most people
are lost.
Most people are unsaved, not just in India or Muslim countries.
No, most people in the Philippines are unsaved, okay?
Most of the non-Catholics are unsaved, okay?
Notice what it says in Jonah 3 verse 10.
And God saw their works that they turn from their evil way.
So notice what the Bible says, that your works are turning from your evil way.
Now this makes sense.
Quitting drinking is work.
Quitting smoking is work.
There are people that have been saved for 30 years that still smoke cigarettes every
week.
They don't want to smoke, they want to quit, but it's hard, it takes work to quit.
There are saved people I'm sure in this room that are still listening to the rock music,
you're still smoking, you're still doing a lot of these things.
You don't want to do that, but you're still doing it.
Why?
It's work, it's hard, it's difficult to quit those things.
And getting saved does not mean that you magically just quit all of your sins.
See, it takes work to turn from your evil way.
It takes work to quit your sins and try to start living for God.
And see, look, if people are trusting in changing their lifestyle, they are trusting their works.
It takes work to change your lifestyle.
It takes work to turn from your sins.
And look, when you preach the gospel to people, do not most people tell us, well, you know,
I gave my life to God when I was 20 years old.
Now, God gave his life for me.
It's like, we don't have to give our life to God to be saved.
And look, nobody has given their entire life to God.
I mean, did you just wake up this morning and you just woke up and you slept with a
smile on your face because you're in such a great mood, right?
And you woke up and there's this big smile on your face and then I'll say, man, I'm so
happy today.
Let me just pray for an hour.
You get done praying for an hour.
You're so devoted to God.
You're like, man, I'm going to finish my breakfast in like less than two minutes.
I'm just going to eat quickly so I can read the Bible for an hour.
And you're just in a great mood.
You're always so excited.
And this is every single day you're like this.
Every single day you spend at least an hour in prayer, at least an hour reading the Bible.
Man, you come home, man, I can't wait to just memorize the Bible.
I'm just going to spend like two hours just trying to memorize this minor prophet just
every day just rinse your feet.
You're never angry at your wife.
You're always patient.
You're always in such a great mood.
Is there anybody like that?
Because if you had given your entire life to God, that's how you would be.
Look, the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments and nobody can say they always
keep the commandments of God.
You say, why?
Because you have not given your entire life to God.
Now, you might have given some of it to God.
You're here today.
You're in church.
You read the Bible.
You've given some of your life to God, but none of us have given our entire lives to
God.
Okay?
And so look, when we talk to people, the majority of people, if they don't tell you that they're
trusting in their works, they'll say it's by faith, but then they'll tell you about
how their works will save them.
Well, but it's not works.
But you know, you got to live a good life and follow his commandments, of course.
It's not works, but you must follow his commandments to be saved.
They're trusting in their works.
That's the reality.
Look, even Mormons quote to you grace through faith.
Mormons tell you you're saved by grace through faith.
That's what they tell you.
Look, I preach the gospel of many Mormons in my life.
They'll say grace through faith.
And then they'll say, you know, after all that you can do is what they add.
Because that's what the Book of Mormon says in 2 Nephi 25, I think it's verse three, maybe
verse 23.
It says grace, after all that you can do.
So they redefine what the word grace means in the Book of Mormon.
But they'll still say, well, yeah, we agree with you, saved by grace through faith.
But then they say, well, you got to do good works.
And see, that is what the vast majority of people, not just in the cults, just in your
non-denominational churches, they say the same thing.
You got to give your life to God, you got to repent of all your sins, be a good person.
Otherwise, you know, you're not really saved.
So understanding this is what people believe, that shows you most people are lost, and there's
a battle, we got to preach the gospel to them.
Notice what it says in the second half of this verse, and God repented of the evil that
he had said that he would do on to them, and he did it not.
So in Jonah chapter three, verse 10, the Bible says God repented, okay.
Now, last I checked, God is not a sinner, right, right, right, lahat taiwai na kasala,
not God.
God's perfect.
Okay.
And so here's the thing, if repenting means to turn from your sins, then apparently God's
a sinner.
But I thought God was perfect, because the Bible says that Jesus Christ in him is no
sin.
There is no sin in Jesus Christ, okay.
There's no sin in God.
And so here's what you need to understand.
Repentance does not mean to turn from your sins.
Repenting means to change or to turn, but it depends on the context of what you're turning
or changing from.
It could be from your sins, but it could be quit trusting in your Catholicism and trust
in Jesus Christ.
And many people here in the Philippines are trusting Catholicism and their idols to get
them to heaven.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Turn to Acts 19, Acts 19.
And so look, that word repent, that is a huge battle word right there.
Because many people, many Baptists say, well, you've got to turn from your sins.
You've got to repent of all your sins to be saved.
And look, the vast majority of people in this room, I believe, went to Baptist churches
before you came to this church.
At least probably half the people here went to a Bible Baptist church or something pretty
similar to that.
And look, you know, the vast majority of you, your old church taught you must repent of
your sins to be saved.
Right.
Look, that is work salvation.
Amen.
Because God saw their works that they turn from their evil way.
Look, it's work salvation.
Now, the sad thing is people that are in these churches, a lot of them are saved and confused
because they got false prophets as pastors.
But look, when someone's preaching, repent from your sins and turn from your sins, that
is the same message that the Mormons or the Catholics or anybody says, give your life
to God, turn from your sins, you know, just change the wording all you want.
They're still teaching the exact same thing.
And it's not the gift of God is eternal life.
Okay.
Acts 19 verse four, Acts 19 verse four.
People say, well, you don't, you don't believe in repentance.
No, I believe in repentance.
I believe in preaching repentance as the Bible defines what that word means.
Acts 19 verse four.
Then said Paul, John, verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
Now whenever you have phrases like this, these repents of sins, preachers always stop and
say, well, see, he preached repentance.
It's like, well, yeah, it says he preached repentance, but let's see what the rest of
the verse says as he's going to define what this means saying on to the people that they
should believe on him, which should come after him.
That is on Christ Jesus.
So how does the Bible define repentance here that you should believe on Jesus Christ?
Say how is that possible?
Because there are many Catholics in this country that are trusting in their Roman Catholicism
to get to heaven.
They're trusting in their idols.
They're trusting in the rosary and they're not bad people, but they're confused and they're
deceived because they were raised that way and look for them to be saved.
They must change their mind and it's fine to say you must repent and believe on Jesus,
but we're not saying repent from your sins and quit drinking and quit smoking.
What we're saying is quit trusting in Mary and trust in Jesus Christ, quit trusting in
the rosary beads and trust in Jesus Christ.
Quit trusting in these vain traditions like the Feast of the Black Nazarene and trust
in Jesus Christ.
That is what we're telling them.
We're not telling them, well, man, you're drinking a beer right now.
If you want to be saved, you've got to just turn this over and just dump it on the ground.
Look, that's work salvation.
Tell them they've got to quit drinking and the reality is this, there are drunks and
drug addicts and people that are addicted to smoking and all kinds of sin and warliness
that we will see in heaven one day because it's mani wala long.
It's not well-believed plus live a good life.
No, it's just belief.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Turn your Bible to 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Now I will say this.
I don't shy away from using the word repent, but you know, when I go soul winning, if I
do use that word, I make sure to explain it because the majority of people, if you tell
them, well, you got to repent, they'll be like, yeah, man, I really do need to quit
drinking.
It's like, I really do need to, you know, quit, you know, watching those worldly movies,
you know, man, I hope God's going to let me get into heaven.
I'm trying to repent.
It's like they don't understand what the word means and so we need to make the gospel simple
and plain so you can preach the gospel and never say the word repent, right?
And it's fine because you're explaining the gift of God as eternal life and look, you
know, as long as you go through the same basic points of preaching the gospel, I'm okay with
how you preach the gospel as long, and we'll talk about that more during the sermon.
You don't have to use the exact same verses in me, so you're welcome to use the word repent
if you want, but if you're going to use it, you need to make sure you explain it because
I'm telling you, most people out there, they don't know what that word means.
They're confused about that word and look, even most saved people are confused about
that word.
Look, I was saved for a couple of years before this topic really kind of came to a head when
I was at a church that was teaching this and look, you know, when I used to preach the
gospel, I think I did say the word repent.
I'd explain how it's just by believing, it's just a gift, and I'd just kind of throw that
word in at the end because I always hear it all the time, and I was already saved, but
I didn't know the proper terminology, okay?
And so look, there are saved people that are confused, and that is why we make it very
clear at this church because we don't want anybody who's saved confused because if somebody
is confused, they're not going to perceive there's a battle, and they're not going to
fight the battle because they think everybody at CCF and Victory has already heard the gospel.
That's what they think.
And then in the Catholic church, I mean, yeah, like half the Catholic church is saved, right?
It's like, no, they have to have somebody actually explain the gospel to them, okay?
Now, look at what it says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17.
2 Corinthians 5 verse 17.
The Bible says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Now, oftentimes when you hear this verse quoted, what you'll hear people do is say, well, see,
when you get saved, all things have become new, which means you start reading the Bible,
you start going to church, you start living for God, but let's look at this verse very
closely and see if this is actually what's being said here.
Now, if any man be in Christ, that is referring to someone who's saved, okay?
I agree with him.
He is a new creature, okay?
So notice the word new.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Does that say some things are become new or all things?
All things.
Now, here's the thing.
If this is saying that when you get saved, you're going to start to live for God, well,
that would mean some things are become new because almost everybody would agree that
we still sin.
There are very, very few people out there that say, well, you know, you're completely
sinless and you never sin.
You run into them every once in a while, but it's pretty rare.
This week, though, there's this famous street preacher, Jesse Morrell, and I guess he got
mad at a video we made like over a year ago.
I forgot we made the video because he believes once you get saved, you're perfect.
You can lose your salvation if you commit any sin.
If you commit one sin, you lost your salvation, and he believes he is perfect, and he got
mad and posted on our, and I was like, oh man, this is Jesse Morrell.
He's like the most famous street preacher in the world.
He got mad at, you know, something I said like a year and a half ago, and he's just
like, you're mad at me speaking about the resurrection?
And then I commented back, no, I'm mad at you for telling people that you can lose your
salvation, and you must be perfect after you get saved.
Very few people are crazy like that.
Almost everybody will admit, yeah, at times, at least Paul Minson Minson and I have a bad
attitude.
At least every once in a while, I'm not always in a perfect mood.
It's just like, it's an extremely arrogant thing to actually say, I never sin.
I never have a bad attitude.
I mean, the thought of foolishness is sin.
The thought of foolishness is sin.
Do you mean to tell me that all day long, every single one of your thoughts is just
about the Lord Jesus Christ and soul winning, and you're just so happy, right?
You know, let's say your baby just happens to throw up on the ground, and you're really
busy and already stressed out.
You're like, oh, it's such a joy to have this child, to clean this up.
I'm so happy, no problem.
Look, for those of you who think that, once you get married and have kids, you're going
to realize, you know what, you start getting more stressed in life.
Every parent in this room is going to say, amen, that's definitely true, okay?
It's like no one has given their entire life to God.
Nobody's perfect.
And what it says here is all things are become new.
Now, if this is referring to your works in starting to live a good life, then it would
say some things because we're not perfect after we get saved.
But it says all things are become new because what it's referring to is the fact you're
indwelled with the Holy Spirit of God, the new creature, not the reformed or changed
creature, the new creature, okay?
You're indwelled with the Spirit of God.
You've got the new creature inside of you, and every day you have that free will to do
what's right or do what's wrong.
Your flesh wants to do what's wrong.
The new creature wants to do what's right.
You have that choice, and when you get saved, you are indwelled with the Spirit of God,
the new creature.
Turn to 1 John 5.
1 John 5.
And see, you have to understand, when you see verses like these, what I'm explaining
to you is very different than most Baptist creatures.
They would very much disagree with what I said.
If I took time to explain to you my interpretation of James 2 or of the parable of the sower
or Matthew 7 verses 21 through 23 where it says, I never knew you, if I explained it
to you, and we don't have time to do that, I want you to understand, most Baptist creatures
here in the Philippines would disagree with what I said.
They'd be angry, and their interpretation would line up just with the Catholics, just
with the cults, just with every other church.
They'd be mad at the things I say.
What does that tell you?
It tells you there's a battle and most people are lost.
That's what it tells you because of the fact they believe in their works.
They believe if you're really saved, you're going to be a great person until the day you
die, and you would never commit a sin like adultery or murder, like in 2 Samuel 11, like
we read in the text chapter.
You'd never commit.
And here's what some of those people say.
They'll tell you David was not saved when he committed that sin.
That's what Ray Comfort tells you.
In his book, I read it with my own eyes.
He says, you know what, that David was not saved when he committed that.
It's like, David was not saved?
It's like, talk about a weird, bizarre interpretation, but of course he can't be saved because he's
still doing bad sins.
That's his interpretation.
You say, why?
Because Ray Comfort's trusting his works, as are most people.
And so notice what it says here in 1 John 5.
1 John 5, verse 13.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son
of God.
Now see, the Bible says that you can know that you have eternal life.
And so when you talk to people and they tell you, I do not know if I'm going to heaven,
which is what over 90% of people here in the Philippines are going to tell you.
Now in the US, I've found that more people will tell you they know they're going to heaven
because they're just being really arrogant.
They'll always say, oh yeah, I know I'm going to heaven.
Here in the Philippines though, most people are pretty honest and they say, I don't know
if I'm going to heaven.
What that tells us as soul winners is they're not saved.
Because when you have eternal life, you know you have eternal life.
And they say, I don't know if I'm going to heaven.
I don't know what I have to do to get there.
I'm trying to live a good life.
And this is what most people are here in the Philippines.
That's because they're not saved.
They're not saved.
They don't know how to go to heaven.
Because I remember when I got saved, all of a sudden, boom, I went from I'm 80% sure to
I'm 100%, 100%, 120%, whatever, right?
I was 100% sure I'm going to heaven no matter how bad I screw up my life.
Because God promised it's eternal life.
And the Bible says you can know that.
Now it's going to go to these other verses here in 1 John.
I'm going to save them for later on in the sermon.
So turn to Matthew 9.
Matthew 9.
Matthew chapter 9.
And so first thing is this.
When it comes to perceiving there's a battle, you have to understand most people, not saved.
And look, for us in the room that have gone soul winning, this is what you found.
And I can pretty much guarantee for all of us that when you first got saved,
you thought there was a higher percentage of saved people than when you actually started going soul winning.
Once you started going soul winning, you're like, oh wow, so few people.
Because you knew narrow is the way we sleep on the life.
But all of a sudden that gets more and more narrow as you get older and start learning the Bible and go soul winning.
You're like, man, that is really narrow.
And it's pretty crazy because the gospel is so simple to explain.
It's a gift and so many people receive it.
It just shows you these Baptist churches just aren't doing the work here in the Philippines.
Because very few people know they're going to heaven.
Now notice what it says in Matthew 9.
Let's talk about what are God's methods.
We perceive there's a battle, most are lost.
Well, what are God's methods?
Matthew 9 verse 36.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them,
because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples,
stand on the corner of a stream with a sign that says repent and scream at people for hours.
Wait, is that what your Bible says?
That's not what my Bible says.
But isn't that what most people's evangelism is?
Just stand and scream at people like a jerk.
Yeah, people are going to love that message.
Just stand. That's good news.
If you don't repent from your sins, you're going to hell.
That sounds like really good news.
I mean, talk about being a jerk.
No, what Jesus said is this.
Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few.
Now, labor means hard work.
It doesn't mean work.
It means hard work.
And look, soul winning is hard work.
Man, we had 27 people from our church yesterday
going either to Cape Town Province or it was all part of an all-day soul winning.
Let me tell you something.
When my wife and I went home, we were tired.
We're exhausted.
We're so exhausted after that day,
and I'm sure most of you felt that way as well.
Why? Because soul winning is labor.
It's hard work.
It's not easy.
Verse 38, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he will send forth labors into his harvest.
And so the Bible says we ought to pray
that we'll have more labors, more soul winners.
And that is what this day is about
and this spring competition to get people saved
and bring them to church to try to bring more soul winners
to the fold here where we live.
Notice what it says in Matthew 10, verse 1.
The context is not changed at the end of Matthew 9
because Matthew 10 is the soul winning chapter
where Jesus sends them out.
Verse 1, and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples,
he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Go down to verse number 11.
And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter,
inquire who in it is worthy, and thereby till ye go thin.
Say, what does worthy mean?
Well, let's look at the context.
Verse 12, and when ye come into a house, salute it.
Now, in verse 12, it shows us that as we go door to door soul winning
or talk to people in a park, it says to salute the house.
A salutation is basically a very nice opening to a book.
Or in the military, you salute.
It's being very respectful.
So when we're going soul winning, it's basically saying,
be nice when you talk to people.
Don't be a jerk at the door.
Be nice to the people.
Now, here's the thing.
Sometimes they will be rude back to you.
That does not change the fact God told you to salute that house,
to be respectful.
And if they get mad at you, you know what,
just forget about it and you move on to the next door.
We're not trying to get in fights out soul winning.
We're not trying to make people cry out soul winning.
We're trying to get people saved.
And if somebody's rude to us, you just ignore it
and you move on to the next door.
That's what the Bible says.
Verse 13, and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it.
But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
Peace is referring to the gospel of peace.
If the house is worthy, we preach the gospel of peace.
If the house is not worthy, then we don't preach the gospel of peace.
You say, what does that mean?
Does that mean you kind of go up to a house and you look at it and say,
well, it looks like they have too much money.
They're not going to get saved.
It's not worthy and you go into the next house.
Or you look at this house and it's like, oh, man, I don't know.
I don't know. I doubt it.
Let's just go to the next one.
That's not what it's saying.
Because verse 14 is going to tell you,
and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words,
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
See, the Bible says the person who is worthy is the person willing to receive you or hear your words.
So here's the thing.
You knock on the door and they say, I'm not interested.
Guess what you do?
You move on to the next door.
You don't say, well, I'm going to put my foot in this door
and I'm just going to tell you what I think of you.
No, they're not worthy according to the Bible.
By default, we assume somebody is worthy to hear the Gospel.
And if they choose not to, you move on to the next person.
I'm not saying you shouldn't try to compel them or persuade them to listen.
But what I'm saying is, obviously, if they just say, no, I'm just not interested,
you're just friendly to them, say, we'd love to have you come to church sometime,
here's an invitation, have a great day.
And you just move on whether or not they're nice or they're rude to you.
Now, most people in the Philippines are not going to be rude to you.
But I'll tell you what, whenever I seem to walk up to Muslims here in the Philippines,
oftentimes the Muslims are pretty rude.
Sometimes some of these cults are pretty rude.
But I'm still not going to be rude back to them
because the Bible didn't tell me to be rude.
So basically, if they're not willing to receive you or hear your words,
you just depart out of that house or city and shake off the dust of your feet.
That is what it says in Matthew 10, verse 14.
So the person who's worthy is the person who's willing to listen.
But what we see of God's method here is we talk to everybody
and find out who's worthy.
Find out who wants to listen.
When we went to Resolve Park yesterday,
we tried to talk to everybody and find out who is willing to listen to us,
who's willing to hear our words.
Now, here's the thing, sometimes you talk to people
and they're not willing to hear your words.
They're willing to tell you their words.
No, the Bible says if they're willing to receive you and hear your words.
You say, why?
Because our purpose is to preach the gospel to people.
And if they just want to argue with us and debate with us,
they're not worthy according to Matthew 10.
Now, hopefully one day they will be worthy and they'll be willing to listen,
but if somebody wants to argue with you,
and you have to watch out for these false prophets in these parks,
because some of these false prophets will spend 30 minutes just arguing with you.
Just move on to the next person.
You have to be willing to lose the battle to win the fight
because the fight is getting somebody saved
and the battle is an individual battle.
Just move on.
It's a battle you can't win, okay?
Look, if you were in a sword fight
and there's somebody who's like twice the size of Goliath,
you'd probably just move on to someone else
because you're probably not going to beat that person, right?
And look, when we're going soloing
and there's somebody who just wants to argue with you,
that is a battle that you will lose if you spend time in that.
Even if you win the argument, you lost the battle.
You lost the battle.
You allow them to waste your time
and you miss the main goal of getting people saved.
You find people who are worthy.
Turn to Romans 10.
So what is God's method?
Well, God's method is just going and finding people that want to hear the gospel.
Now, we try to be systematic and organized
because we have a lot of soul owners of this church.
We have a lot of people, like four different families
that are out today due to sickness,
but we still will have a lot of people soul winning here on Sunday.
And if we just said, all right, it's time to get soul winning,
just go somewhere,
look, that is a little bit too magulo,
a little bit too disorganized, okay?
No, we have to actually kind of pair you up
and say, well, here's your area.
We have to be as organized as possible.
If you only have like three or four people, it's not too hard.
If you have like 25 people, you got to kind of be organized, okay?
And so, look, we're not just saying we'll just go anywhere,
but we are meeting together and then we're sending you on.
That's what Romans 10 says.
Romans 10 verse 13.
For whosoever, verse 13,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
No one's going to get saved unless they hear the gospel from someone.
They hear it from a preacher.
Verse 15, and how shall they preach except they be sent?
Now, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is sending us to talk to whoever's unsaved.
Obviously, God wants you to talk to anyone who's unsaved,
but what's really directly referring to is basically being part of a church
that just sends you out to preach the gospel.
How are you going to preach except you're sent?
And here's the thing.
Many of you are at churches that didn't believe in soul winning
a year ago or two years ago,
and you did believe in soul winning.
But how much soul winning did you do?
Probably not a whole lot.
You say, why?
Because honestly, unless you have a group that helps motivate you,
it's hard to do it on your own.
Now, praise the Lord in this area before this church started,
there was a group meeting together for soul winning
kind of apart from their churches and doing the work.
But I'm just telling you, it's a lot easier being part of a church that believes in that.
They support you, and then they send you out,
and how are you going to preach except you're sent?
1 Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians chapter 14.
So look, God's method is not standing on a street corner and screaming.
God's method is not just bringing in a bunch of unsaved people
and just having an altar call,
having them come down to the front and give their life to God
in a one minute conversation.
That's not God's method.
There's many reasons for that,
and we could preach a whole sermon or sermon series on that,
and one day I'm sure I will.
We don't have time,
but the basic thing you see in Matthew 9 and Matthew 10,
not using man's wisdom but God's methods,
is basically he sends them out to preach the gospel.
Two by two.
He sends them out, they preach the gospel,
they get people saved.
We just do the same thing that you see in the Bible.
And look, we get lots of people saved.
Almost every week now we get at least 100 people saved.
We got 79 people saved yesterday,
but that's 27 soul winners when you include the babies.
Counting Zeph and Phoebe and Christabel.
27 soul winners.
That's three salvations on average.
On average, 27 soul winners, 79 salvations.
That's not a crazy number.
It's just a lot of soul winning going on.
So we get lots of people saved.
1 Corinthians 14.
Verse 7,
And even things without life-giving sound,
whether pipe or harp,
except they give a distinction in the sounds,
how shall it be known whether piped or harped?
And so the Bible is saying in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 7,
that if you're going to use a pipe or a harp,
you need to be very clear with what the sound is.
Verse 8,
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
you don't know what that sound is for.
You don't know if that sound is to go to battle.
You don't know if that sound is basically we're at peace.
You don't know.
You're not sure what to do.
See, the Bible says if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall prepare himself to the battle?
And I want you to understand,
most Baptist churches,
the trumpet's giving an uncertain sound.
The members don't know what the pastor believes about salvation.
Right.
I mean, I asked people, you know, before,
and I've asked people in this church, you know,
was your old pastor saved?
And you're like, not sure.
Maybe it was just kind of an uncertain sound,
so I don't really know what he believed about salvation.
You know, I don't know.
I mean, he said he believed in eternal security,
but he also said that if you're really saved,
you would never commit a bad sin like murder or suicide,
so I don't really know whether he was saved or not.
That pastor's giving an uncertain sound.
And the reality is,
who's going to prepare himself for the battle
if the trumpet's an uncertain sound?
Look, nobody in this room is going to say,
I give an uncertain sound when I preach.
But they might say it's kind of an offensive sound.
It's too loud.
It's not nice enough, but it is not uncertain, my friend.
I make it very clear what we believe here about salvation,
because otherwise, who's going to prepare himself to the battle?
And so notice verse 9.
So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood,
how shall it be known what is spoken?
For ye shall speak into the air.
So when you preach sermons or you're preaching the gospel,
you use words that are easy to understand.
But when you go sowing,
you could come up with the most articulate,
complicated, complex sowing example of all time.
But did you know it's not as effective
as just explaining what a gift is?
The gift of God is eternal life.
You know, God used words that everybody understands.
Being born again.
And look, if you have kids, you understand the analogy
of being born into a family.
When a child is born, the mom does the work, not the baby.
When it comes to us being born into God's family,
Jesus did the work, not us.
And that child is always your child.
And yes, you punish that child.
Yes, you discipline that child.
Look, I'm never going to throw my son in Mount Pinatubo.
It does not matter how helio he is.
I don't care how grumpy he is or whatever.
I would never throw him in a burning lake.
When you receive Jesus and become into his family,
you become his child, no matter what sin you commit,
God would never take you and cast you into the lake of fire.
The people that go there are not God's children.
No parent is going to send their children to a burning lake.
God will not send his children to a burning lake.
He'll send people that are not his children
to a burning lake forever.
And so those examples make sense.
Because here's the thing.
When you have personal examples that make sense to you,
they might make sense to you due to your personal experiences in life.
I could come up with soccer illustrations
and Brother Herman would understand what I'm talking about.
Brother Jerome would understand what I'm talking about.
This front row, yeah, man, I got it.
Some of you would be like,
I've never watched a soccer game before.
So what are you talking about?
I could use a math illustration.
And I would love to use math illustrations.
And it would make sense to me perhaps, but not to everybody.
But see, the gift example, it makes sense to everybody.
You use words that are easy to be understood.
The Bible says you're not trying to sound intelligent
when you preach or preach the gospel.
You're trying to just show them what the message of salvation is.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 14.
1 Corinthians 14. Over there.
Look at verse 8.
This goes to the next point.
Verse 8.
For the trumpet give an uncertain sound,
who shall prepare himself to the battle?
The first point was you perceive there is a battle.
The second point is you prepare for the battle.
You perceive there's a battle.
You prepare for the battle.
How do you prepare for the battle?
Turn to Ephesians 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Now there's many parts of preparing for the battle,
but the Bible speaks about this in Ephesians 6
when it talks about the whole armor of God.
Notice what it says in Ephesians 6.
Ephesians chapter 6 verse 15.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Go from 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians
to Galatians to Ephesians.
Ephesians 6 verse 15.
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Now this is referring to soul winning in verse 15.
And notice it uses the terminology,
the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Now what does the Bible mean by the preparation of the gospel of peace?
Well turn to Mark 10.
Mark 10.
Now surely there's many aspects to preparing for soul winning,
but look a large part of that is simply you know how to preach the gospel.
You know how to preach the gospel.
How are you going to have confidence to preach the gospel
if you don't know what to explain?
First you need to understand why people are unsaved
and then you need to know well how am I going to explain to them it's a gift
so it makes sense to them?
How am I going to explain it's eternal life
if it makes sense to them?
How will I explain these things?
Look when I go preach the gospel,
everyone who's heard me preach the gospel,
my gospel is very thorough.
I go very in depth.
And look I spend a lot of time to make sure they get it
and sometimes they seem like they're getting it.
They're like oh yeah there's no exchange for a gift.
You know you could never take that back.
But then when you actually make practical examples,
they say well no you'd lose your salvation.
It's like well once again, with a gift, can it be taken back?
They say no.
It's like once again how long is buhay na walang hangan?
And like for the 10th time they say well it's forever.
It's like you know they can answer some things that are right,
but you need to still make sure they get it.
Because sometimes they're like oh wow this is making sense,
but they're still not getting it.
Why?
Because when you're deceived by false religion,
it's going to take you a long time.
When I heard the gospel, my friend gave me the gospel,
it was like an hour and a half conversation.
I probably would not have been someone who got saved in 15 minutes at the door.
Now was it because I'm very Bobo?
I don't know, maybe.
That's why it took me an hour and a half.
But look it took me a long time because when you believe false things,
it's hard to completely change your world perspective like that.
Praise the Lord that some people do in 15, 20 minutes,
but let me tell you something.
It's more than one minute, right?
It's more than two minutes.
We have to actually explain these points.
Notice what it says in Mark 10.
Mark 10.
Now in Mark 10, this is a passage that maybe some people in this room,
you might read this and you say I don't understand what Jesus is doing here.
I mean it sounds like he's not trying to get this person saved.
And this is why we need to understand and know how to preach the gospel
because this is A plus soul winning here from Jesus Christ.
Mark 10 verse 17.
And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him,
Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Now when we read passages in the Bible and we don't immediately understand it,
just kind of sit back, look over it closely,
and realize there's no errors in the Bible.
You have to understand here in verse 17,
there are two things that are being addressed.
One thing is this man runs to Jesus and says, Good Master.
This man does not believe Jesus is God, but he believes Jesus is good.
There's a problem because the Bible says there is none good but one.
We'll see that in a second.
The Bible says there is none righteous.
So you can't say somebody's good if he's not God because none of us are good.
We sin every day.
We sin every single day.
So you can't say somebody's good and they're not God.
The only one who's good is Jesus Christ.
The only one who's good all the time.
The only one who's good is God.
So it says, Good Master.
That's one problem.
The other thing is this.
What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Basically, this person does not understand who Jesus is
and he doesn't understand what Jesus did for him.
He's basically completely lost.
Because when we go soul winning, sometimes people understand Jesus is God.
This person doesn't even have that down.
This guy's part of one of these calls.
He's like an old school Mormon or Jehovah's Witness or something like that.
I don't know.
And so notice what it says in verse 18.
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one that is God.
Now Mark 10 verse 18 is like Jehovah's Witness's favorite verse to prove Jesus is not God.
They say, Well, Jesus said there's none good but one that is God.
So Jesus is saying, I'm not God.
You know, the only one who's good is God.
And he's saying, I'm not God.
But Jehovah's Witnesses also say Jesus is perfect and he never sinned one time.
And so you ask him, Was Jesus good?
They'll say, Well, yeah, you know, he never sinned.
It's like he's not saying he's not God.
He's saying he is God.
What he's telling this man is this.
You cannot look at a person and say he's good unless he's God.
And he's like, Why are you calling me good?
There's none good but one that is God.
Now we know Jesus is God because the Bible says God was manifest in the flesh.
What he's trying to tell this person here is this.
First you need to understand you are guilty.
You cannot earn your way to heaven.
This guy's problem is he's trusting in his works to get to heaven.
What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Salvation is not about what we do.
It's about what Jesus did.
So when we preach the gospel, the first thing we do is show people they're guilty.
They need a savior.
If someone does not believe they're guilty, they will never believe on Jesus to be saved.
Look, if I was drowning in water but I did not know I was drowning,
I'm not going to cry out for somebody to save me
because I think I'm just swimming in the water and I'm fine.
If somebody's in a burning building and they don't know it's on fire,
they're not going to just run out of their house frantic and scared.
Now here's the reality.
We know their houses are on fire.
We know they're drowning.
They don't know that.
They think they're fine because they think, man, I'm living a good life.
So us, we get this.
They don't get this.
And Jesus is telling this person, look, you cannot call me good
because the only one that's good is God.
Now he's not saying he's not God.
He's saying the only one that's good is God.
And this person, he doesn't understand that because he thinks he's good.
He thinks he can work his way to heaven.
Verse 19, thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness.
Defraud not.
And so if you don't understand this passage, you could look at verse 19 and say,
is Jesus telling him he got to quit committing adultery to be saved?
So you got to quit killing and stealing to be saved?
No, what he's trying to do is show this person you've not kept the commandments.
You're guilty and this person doesn't believe that because notice verse 20,
and he answered and said unto a master,
all these have I observed for my youth.
Really?
You always honored your father and your mother from your youth.
You never disobeyed your parents.
Ever.
This guy is prideful and self-righteous.
And Jesus is trying to show them,
look, you are guilty.
Okay?
Verse 21, then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him,
one thing thou lackest, go thy way,
sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me.
And so Jesus tells them,
sell everything you have, give to the poor and just follow me.
Is that the message of salvation?
No.
But this person thinks his works are going to get to heaven
and until he understands he's guilty,
he will not get saved.
Amen.
You say, well, how do I apply this to my soul?
Here's how you apply it.
When you go to Revelation 21, 8 in your gospel presentation
and someone says, well, you know, I don't think I deserve hell.
I think I'm good enough to earn my way to heaven.
And you show them one other verse and they say,
I think I'm fine.
I think by my good works, I'll get to heaven.
What you're seeing is this.
You don't move on to something else until they realize they're guilty.
Now, here's the thing.
If somebody is that self-righteous,
you're just moving on to the next door
because the Bible gives us the principle of
after one or two admonitions, you just move on.
Because they're just denying the Bible
because there are people out there willing to listen.
What I'm trying to show you is this.
When you're preaching the gospel,
there's certain steps and they must get every step right.
Think of a math problem.
There's many steps to a math problem
and if you miss this step,
you're not going to get X equals whatever as the right answer.
You must get every step right.
And when you're going soul winning,
we go through all the steps
and if they don't understand a step,
then they're not going to understand the rest of it.
They will not understand what salvation is
until they realize they need a savior.
Look, I got saved because I was scared of going to hell
and I would say that's probably everybody in this room.
When you understood the reality of hell,
you're like, man, that scares me forever.
And so that's why you got saved.
Verse 22,
And he was sad at that saying and went away grief,
for he had great possessions.
Now, turn to 1 John 5 in your Bible.
1 John 5.
And I'll have to hurry for the sake of time,
but I asked Brother Matthias.
I wanted to give him a birthday gift.
So I asked him to come up here
and I'm going to give you a bit of an illustration.
I want to have kind of a lasting impact
and I'll explain what I'm talking about.
Here's his sword.
Here's my sword.
This was our son's and it was really cool.
You hit a button, it made this noise,
and my son broke it like a couple days in.
But anyways, let's say, for example,
we're having a sword fight.
Let's say, for example, I get him here in the leg.
His first reaction is going to be like,
that hurts, right?
And then I get him in the arm here.
And let's say, for example,
then I get him right here
and then it hurts him and he's like,
in pain, pretend to be in pain.
And he's in pain.
And let's say, for example,
I just walk away.
Do I know if he died?
I don't know if he died.
Now, he might have died
because I stabbed him right near the heart, right?
But I don't know if he died or not, okay?
What I'm trying to illustrate to you is this,
and I'll show this to you in a second.
When we're preaching the gospel,
if we don't explain all those points
specifically eternal security,
we have no clue whether or not he died or not.
He might have died, but he might not have.
I have absolutely no idea whether or not
he heard and understood the gospel
because I didn't explain all of it.
And I'll show you in a second
that explaining eternal security
is part of the gospel presentation.
And look, if somebody does not understand that,
they're not getting saved.
And look, if I wound him,
but I don't double check
by asking him questions about the gospel,
whether or not he got it,
I don't know whether he got it or not.
Now, I'll show this to you in a second,
but here's the reality of this.
When you're preaching the gospel
and you do not explain eternal security,
it's not like stabbing him here.
It's like stabbing him right here in the shoulder
and hoping he bleeds to death.
The odds of him dying from a stab wound
to the shoulder are like one in 50,
probably less than that.
If you don't explain eternal security,
it's not like stabbing them in the heart.
It's like basically wounding them in the knee
and hoping they just bleed to death somehow.
All right, well, I appreciate it.
That's your birthday gift, all right?
It's his birthday today,
and so I just wanted to give him a quick birthday gift.
I killed him on his birthday.
But look at 1 John 5, and I'll show this to you.
Because, look, there's a lot of cute methods
of preaching the gospel
that just don't explain all the points,
and you get to pray with a lot of people.
It's like, man, look at me.
I prayed with like 57 people today.
But they don't explain all the points.
Look, I'm all for getting a big number so many
when you explain the points,
and here's the thing.
In the Philippines, you can get a lot of people saved.
But let me tell you something.
You must explain all the points,
and 1 John 5 is going to tell us
what are all the points of this gift, okay?
Verse 10, 1 John 5,
because remember verse 13 said,
you can know you have eternal life.
And you can know that if you believe certain things.
1 John 5, verse 10,
He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself,
referring to the Holy Spirit.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar
because he believeth not the record
that God gave his Son.
The Bible says that if you do not believe the record,
you're making or calling God a liar, okay?
You say, what does that mean?
What does that mean?
Look, if I told you,
I have a son named Malachi,
and you told me, I don't believe you.
I believe your son's name is Epheniah.
What are you calling me?
A liar.
I would be lying, right?
What the Bible's saying here is
if you don't believe this record of what's written,
you are calling God a liar.
You either believe he's telling the truth or he's lying.
There's no in between.
When somebody makes a statement,
you either believe it or you don't believe it.
And look, if we don't believe this,
you're not gonna get saved.
There's no salvation, and you must believe this.
Verse 11, and this is the record.
He's gonna tell us what you have to believe.
And this is the record that God hath given to us conditional life.
Is that what that says?
God hath given to us temporary life.
God hath given to us life until you commit a bad sin
and don't ask for forgiveness or don't repent.
No, it says God hath given to us eternal life.
And his life is in his Son.
So three things here.
You must realize life is in his Son, Jesus Christ.
It's not in anybody else.
If somebody believes that Buddha's gonna get him to heaven,
then they're gonna split hell wide open.
You must believe life is in his Son.
You must believe God is giving you eternal life.
This is parallel with Romans 6.23, the second half.
The gift of God is eternal life.
A gift is something that is given to you.
You ask people, what's the definition of a gift?
And oftentimes they tell you something that's given to you.
Isn't that what they often say?
That is what it's saying here.
You must understand it's a gift.
No works involved.
But what is that gift?
God hath given to us eternal life.
When people get saved,
they must understand that there's no works to be saved.
There's no works to stay saved.
There's nothing you can do to earn your salvation.
There's nothing you can do to lose your salvation.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey,
why are you making such a big deal about this?
I'm making a big deal about this
because 95% of Baptist soul winning
does not explain eternal salvation.
It's shallow and they get a big number
and it's just a joke.
They're not really getting a lot of people saved.
Look, real soul winning means you explain it's only in Jesus,
that it's a gift, and that it's eternal.
Those are all part of what is mentioned in 1 John 5.11.
Now let me tell you something.
The vast majority of Baptists
would very much disagree with what I just said.
Now at least some of the Baptists
here in the Philippines believe in eternal security,
but the ones that believe in eternal security,
they don't think that you need to explain it
when you preach the gospel.
You need to explain all of the points of the gospel.
We don't have to explain every single thing
from Genesis to Revelation,
but God specifically told us this is the record
and he tells us it's eternal life.
There are many things
that people do not have to believe to be saved.
They don't have to believe the same thing
about the rapture as I do.
They don't have to even believe
Jesus literally went to hell.
But they have to believe Jesus,
his body was buried and then he rose again,
but they don't have to believe that his soul went to hell.
But there are some things they must believe to be saved,
and those are that it's a gift, 100%.
Look, if I gave you a brand new car and said,
you've got to give me just one peso,
it's not a gift.
And if somebody believes that's what salvation is,
they're not getting saved.
And if somebody believes that it's in some other way than Jesus,
they're not getting saved.
And look, if somebody believes that they can lose their salvation,
then they're not saved,
because the Bible says that it's eternal life.
That is the gift.
Now here's the thing,
what percentage of people here in the Philippines
believe in eternal security, once saved, always saved?
1%, 2%, not very many, right?
So here's the thing,
for them to get saved,
they must change their mind about once saved, always saved.
Now they must change their mind about salvation
only being in Jesus and being a gift.
And absolutely, explain that in the gospel.
But they also must change their mind about eternal security.
Look, if you never bring it up,
are they going to change their mind?
The odds of them changing their mind when you don't mention it
are like this big.
It's very unlikely, okay?
And look, I'm not calling out any specific Baptist churches,
I'm calling out if the shoe fits, wear it.
Explain eternal security when it fits the gospel.
Now at our church, everyone I've seen does this.
Our church is thorough with the gospel
and this is why I preach on it a lot
because we have new people coming in, so many.
We want proper so many techniques
because when we say we get 79 people saved yesterday,
it's not just a game to impress people.
Wow, very Baptist Manila just tore it up yesterday.
No, it's actually to get 79 people saved,
whether people know about it or not.
And look, when you're thorough with the gospel,
you will have less people to pray with you
because there's more steps along the way they might disagree.
Look, you preach the gospel
and then you get to the very end
and you bring up suicide,
and then boom, everything falls apart.
Like, no, that's going to send you to hell.
Right? You can't commit suicide and you ask why.
Well, that's a sin.
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of sins.
That's a mortal sin.
It's like, well, the Bible doesn't say there's a mortal sin.
I mean, you took your own life, God gave you that life.
Look, they sound like they're getting the gospel,
and then you bring up that topic here
because of their Catholic background,
they say, no, you go straight to hell.
Now, look, that person would be willing to pray with you
and you can count a big number,
but you do not know if they got it or not.
Unless you explain it.
And look, when you intentionally don't explain eternal security,
look, I'm telling you very unlikely
is it that they're going to get saved,
but you just don't know.
And look, and as far as I know,
everybody in our church explains this,
but let me just say this.
When you count your number,
if you did not explain eternal security,
don't tell us your number
because we have no idea whether they got it or not.
And look, I will always preach this,
and look, people at our church,
and we believe this,
and I'm all for people at our church that post on Facebook
and say, hey, you must explain eternal security preaching gospel.
You know where they got that from?
They got that from me and the word of God.
And because they understand the Bible, okay?
And I will absolutely support my church members
that believe in thorough soul weight.
Okay?
That is what the Bible teaches, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Luke 8, Luke 8.
Luke chapter 8.
And look, this is what I've always preached.
This is what I've always believed,
not just from the start of this church.
You know, the first Randolph preaching conference in Sacramento,
I got to preach a 20-minute sermon.
It wasn't recorded,
but I got to preach basically before the soul-winning time,
and I preached on soul-winning and proper soul-winning.
I preached on basically three types of soul-winning.
I talked about soul-winning with zeal but no knowledge,
and I talked about not getting people saved,
getting too many people saved,
and then having trouble getting people to pray
because they're not believing.
I talked basically about thorough soul-winning.
You say, why?
This has always been the issue to me.
This has always been my personal thing that really makes me mad
because I've done soul-winning with a lot of people
whose soul-winning is just kind of like time alone.
And look, time alone is not going to get the job done, my friend.
You've got to be thorough.
You've got to explain what the Bible says.
Now at our church, what I've seen is people are thorough,
but look, I've done soul-winning with a lot of people
that listen to a lot of sermons online,
and just listening to a sermon online
doesn't mean you have real experience with getting the job done.
And look, soul-winning needs to be thorough.
Praise the Lord we get a lot of people saved,
but look, let's make sure we explain eternal security
when we preach the gospel
because if we don't explain eternal security,
they might have gotten saved.
We don't know, though.
Luke 8, Luke 8.
So in preparing to preach the gospel,
we need to basically know how to preach the gospel.
And I want you to understand this.
Let me just say this for a couple minutes
because you don't have to be perfect at preaching the gospel
to come soul-winning with us
because everybody who starts out is just not going to be perfect.
Now truly none of us are perfect,
but let me just say when I first started going soul-winning,
I had a lot of work I needed to do in my gospel presentation.
And look, I think it's great when people come to our church
and they start going soul-winning,
even if they're not perfect
because trial and error is how you learn anything in life.
And so I'm all for people basically learning
and they're learning how to preach the gospel.
And the reason why I have this confidence
is because people are very thorough with their gospel
and people have experience preaching the gospel.
And so I'm confident that when someone comes soul-winning
with their church, if they're new to it,
they're going to get better and they're going to learn
because they have experience learning from other people,
not just me, but other people at this church.
So I'm all for if you're new.
Don't feel intimidated like,
oh, man, I don't know, man,
I'm not even going to preach the gospel anymore.
Brother Stuckey might preach against me or something.
Look, I'm not preaching against anybody at this church.
What I'm saying is this, though,
that when we preach the gospel, we need to be thorough.
And if you're new at it, you kind of learn
and make some mistakes along the way.
That's fine.
That's why we have soul-winning partners to help you out
if you're new at this and things such as that.
But we will be thorough in our gospel.
Luke 8, verse 14.
And that which fell among thorns are they
which when they have heard, go forth and are choked
with cares and riches and pleasures of this life
and bring no fruit to perfection.
See, the Bible speaks about this in Luke 8.
It speaks about basically living godly,
not to be choked with the cares and riches
and the pleasures of Facebook, of movies, of TV,
of Hollywood, of all these things.
You say, why?
Because you will bring no fruit to perfection, the Bible says.
If you are choked with all this worldliness
it will prevent you from being zealous preaching the gospel.
That's why it says choked.
Basically imagine, just like, I don't know,
maybe you guys are pretty snakes,
but imagine at some point a boa constrictor,
a snake that basically kills you by wrapping itself around you
and it slowly just wrapping itself around you
and cutting off your air to breathe.
That's basically what it's saying with the cares and riches
and pleasures of this life.
And your ability to go soul-winning is getting choked
and it's getting harder and harder to fight
against, I should have used Brother Mateus for this example.
No, I'm just kidding.
But basically you're being choked
and you don't have the energy to fight back.
And look, I don't know if you realize it,
I can't remember if it's 11 seconds.
I think it's 11 seconds that if you have completely cut off
all air to your head you will die in 11 seconds
if you have 100% cut off.
Now when it comes to people that do jiu-jitsu
or fighting or whatever,
usually submissions are not 100% cut off
so it would take longer.
But if you have completely all air cut off
you will die in a very short amount of time.
And let me tell you something,
when you watch all those movies and TV,
man, it doesn't take long to wrap around you
and you don't have any zeal or desire to go soul-winning.
That's the reality.
Now turn to Psalm 68.
I'll have to skip a few places.
Psalm 68.
My sermons are always long when I preach on soul-winning.
I guess it's something I'm passionate about.
I don't know.
And so to prepare to preach the gospel,
well, I mean, you need to know how to preach the gospel
and you need to live a godly life.
Pretty simple, but you just got to get it done.
And when I first started preaching the gospel,
I practiced in the mirror with myself
when I first started a long time ago.
I was in college and when my roommate was gone,
I would just be in the mirror talking to myself.
And I was practicing preaching the gospel.
I was explaining how it's a gift
and I was just seeing how it looked.
If I'm explaining this, does this seem normal or whatever?
And look, you know, it helped me.
You say, why?
Because I wanted to be prepared.
Amen.
And I didn't want to learn that while I'm on the battlefield.
Right.
You try as much as possible.
Look, before you go to a battlefield,
you learn how to use a gun.
Right.
Now obviously when you use it on the battlefield,
you're going to learn better being in that situation,
but you learn to fight with a sword or a gun off the battlefield.
You don't just step into Goliath and say,
man, I've never even used a weapon before.
What button do I pull?
You learn that before you go to the battlefield as much as possible.
And when you preach the gospel, hey, you know,
if you're a silent partner now, no problem.
Start memorizing the verses now.
Amen.
Memorize Romans 3.23, Romans 6.23, Romans 3.10, Romans 10.9 and 10,
Revelation 21.8, Revelation 20.14.
You say why?
Because here's the thing.
When you memorize those verses,
you're not just like a robot trying to repeat what you've heard other people say.
You understand those verses.
Amen.
And when you fully understand those verses,
you're going to have confidence to explain what's being said.
Amen.
So notice what it says in Psalm 68.
So first we saw that basically you need to perceive there's a battle,
you need to be prepared for the battle,
and you need to publish or basically go soul-willing.
Psalm 68, verse 10.
Thy congregation hath dwelt therein.
Thou, O God, has prepared of thy goodness for the poor.
The Lord gave the word.
Great was the company of those that published it.
Amen.
Kings of armies did flee apace,
and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
And see, the Bible talks about publishing the word of God,
and let me tell you something.
When we preach the word of God,
the Bible says God sends us above kings.
The word of God is getting out to all the ends of the earth.
As much persecution as there is in this world,
God finds a way to get his word out there.
Let me tell you something.
The Bible says great is the company that publishes the word of God.
Why is this important, Brother Stuckey?
This is important because of the fact most people are lost.
They don't know how to get to heaven.
They cannot get to heaven by reading the Bible on their own.
They're not going to learn it from their Catholic church.
They're not going to learn it from their other church, probably.
It's important because no one's going to get saved on their own.
You've got to perceive there's a battle,
and you need to be prepared for that battle,
and you need to actually publish, preach the word of God.
You say, how do we do this, Brother Stuckey?
Here's the thing.
We have soul winning every single Sunday.
Right here.
We do soul winning events and go to different locations,
but every single Sunday,
we have soul winning right here after the services.
You have time for lunch, then you come here.
We have soul winning time at around 2.15.
I know people come from a lot of different distances,
but let me just say this.
During the mega marathon,
which eventually we'll figure out what we're doing
because we have so many soul winning events.
One of these days we'll figure it out,
but one event we're going to do is going to be right here.
For people that are really close to the church,
you can just meet up with us here,
and we'll be knocking the doors just here.
Obviously, it's not as receptive door to door as Resolve Park,
but we're going to be going soul winning right near our church.
Let me tell you something.
The mega marathon, I believe it's April 11th.
Does anyone know April 11th?
Is that the date?
That's going to be the date
we're going to have a big soul winning time right here.
Let me tell you something.
If you've never gotten soul winning before,
that is a great time to jump in.
You don't have to be a speaker from day one.
As much as is possible,
you want to prepare for the battle,
but look, there's plenty of speakers,
and you can be a silent partner,
which means you're basically just there to support.
You're just there to help.
They're not going to just say,
well, I'll let you take the conversation over.
You can just be there,
and then you can just be with them
because we go out two by two,
so someone who's a speaker needs someone to go with them.
That'd be a great time to jump in on April 11th.
If you've never come, you say why?
Because there's a time soldiers go forth to battle,
but it's also the most exciting thing.
You ever do in your life.
Part of the excitement is the fact
that you're nervous about it.
And see, things that make you a little bit nervous,
those are also the things that are the most exciting.
And so you're a little bit nervous about it.
Let me tell you something.
There's nothing more exciting than meeting a soul winner.
Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and just getting to us.
See what you have to say
about soul winners going forth to battle, God,
and I know in this room
that we all have a love here for God.
We come to this church.
We try to read your Bible.
We try to live for you, God.
And for some people,
maybe soul winning is kind of a new thing.
Help them jump in.
Take that step.
And I know that I was scared to go,
but when I started going,
I've never looked back.
I just love soul winning
as do a lot of people in this room, God.
And help us maybe that if we've grown
kind of weary or weak in soul winning,
help refresh that excitement in our lives
and realize that not only is it the most exciting thing,
but it's also something we're called to do.
There's a time for us to go forth to battle.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.